SIGNS CAN BE GOOD SOURCE OF BAD ROAD INFORMATION

Gary WashburnCHICAGO TRIBUNE

As if people didn't have enough to aggravate them on the daily commute--from traffic jams and crazy drivers on expressways to periodic service disruptions and panhandlers on public transit--they also have to contend with signs.

Not just any signs. Signs are supposed help you get from Point A to Point B, and most do a very commendable job.

But then there are:

- Signs that shouldn't be there but are.

In Chicago, the big project that converted State Street between Wacker Drive and Congress Parkway from a mall into the nifty thoroughfare that it has become was completed way back in November. But if you're driving toward the Loop on State, there's still a sign at Ontario Street that warns: "Street Street closed ahead. Use Michigan Avenue or Clark Street."

A subtype are placards posted on public rights of way that have nothing to do with providing useful information to motorists. In the northwest suburbs just south of Lake-Cook Road, big wooden walls have been installed by the Illinois Department of Transportation on either side of Illinois Highway 53 to shield nearby residences from road noise. But a new and disturbing use has surfaced.

Drive by and you'll find one sign posted that urges, "Vote Republican. It's less taxing. Punch 14." Another bigger and more noticeable placard trumpets, "Teamsters Vote Hoffa/Hogan, Restore the Pride."

If IDOT crews allow such visual blight to fester, imagine the flood of political and product advertising that could follow.

- Signs that should be there but aren't.

Getting Around has moaned about this before, but is it unreasonable to expect every major intersection to have street signs?

Strangers heading west on 95th Street in Oak Lawn have no way of knowing that the arterial they're approaching is Central Avenue because there's not one sign at this busy spot to tell them.

A little farther north, motorists in Burbank are left signless and clueless as they approach Central from 83rd Street.

And if you're driving west on Lake-Cook Road in the Highland Park-Northbrook area, there's no sign to let you know that the big cross street ahead is Skokie Boulevard.

It's enough to make you wonder whether officials responsible for maintaining streets and roads look out the window when they're motoring along on them.

- Signs that mislead.

Walk around downtown and you'll see official-looking red and blue signs on CTA property near rail station entrances, each bearing the outline of a jet and the inscription, "Southbound Planes." You might think that this is a place to board trains to O'Hare International Airport.

But you would be wrong.

It's just an ad for Trans World Airlines inviting you to "eight sun-filled Florida stations, stunning Carribean stops, hot and spicy Mexican cities and tropical Honolulu."

The problem is that some of the signs are outside subway stations on the CTA's Red Line, which will transport any unsuspecting riders to Howard Street on the North Side and 95th Street on the South Side, but nowhere near O'Hare. Other TWA signs are outside stations served jointly by Brown, Purple, Green and Orange Line trains. The Orange will deliver you to Midway Airport, but the only CTA route to O'Hare is the Blue.

CTA survey confirms issues

A new survey of CTA customers has found that regular riders--those who ride five or more times a month--have less positive attitudes about the comfort and safety of public transportation than less frequent customers who ride no more than four times a month.

That's not particularly good news because Northwest Research Group Inc., which conducted the survey, concluded that regular CTA patrons are a major potential source of growth for the CTA if only they could be encouraged to ride even more.

"The CTA should work specifically on improvements in comfort and safety," the report said. "Particular attention should be paid to insuring having a place to sit, providing an environment that allows passengers to be in the right frame of mind by the end of the trip and being able to get things done while traveling."

These, of course, are some of the same issues cited a few weeks ago by participants in a Getting Around Highly Unscientific Survey on how to increase lagging CTA ridership.

"Surveys such as this are helpful to give us direction and feedback," said Noelle Gaffney, an agency spokeswoman. "But the real test and the real task ahead of us is to get back to basics and provide clean, safe, on-time, friendly service."